March 22, Day 3 – We didn’t send an update yesterday as we were 150% exhausted – dragging two 150lb. pulks across the roughest terrain imaginable is an 8-hour muscle-tearing fight. The last two nights were a chilling -30 to -35F and the days were approximately -10F. However, we have been extremely fortunate with weather as there has been very little wind and we have enjoyed clear, sunny blue skies in the mountains. The terrain has not changed and remains difficult. After breakfast this morning (Aaron cooks an amazing oatmeal!), we decided the only way to make miles in the rock gardens was to have one person push the pulk while the other harnessed up and pulled. To move one pulk approximately 200 yards through car-size boulders and drifts it took approximately 30 minutes, then we had to walk back and repeat with the other pulk. We did this rotation 6 times over 3 valleys to escape the rocks. Once free of the rock gardens we fought for 3 hours up a formidable incline. We made another few miles and set up camp and ate dinner (fantastic mashed potatoes and summer sausage), a 2-hour task this evening. Once camp was set up, we noticed a day-old set of polar bear tracks leading down from the mountain about 200 yards from camp. We feel safe as the tracks turned around near the bottom and headed back up into the valley (after the bear must have layed down and rolled around, a 15-ft diameter clearing of snow) – it is amazing to see both the size of the tracks and the inclines that the bears are capable of climbing. We are settling in for another cold night and will try to make more headway tomorrow.

7 Comments

What a trip….keep us posted. Thinking about you always. Keep safe and try to keep warm. It looks so beautiful!

Scott Woj

Mar 23, 2010

Onward and upward! Keep moving forward.

Jeni

Mar 23, 2010

Sounds like really hard work — you guys are amazing! I agree with the previous comment completely — looks so beautiful there!! Stay strong!

Roc Fu-Lung Lin

Mar 24, 2010

A Chinese saying, “讀萬卷書不如行萬里路”, means, “Traveling thousands of miles is better than reading thousands of books.”
Knowledge learned from adventure is much more than that from books. I envy and admire both of you for your courage. Keep going.

Marnie

Mar 24, 2010

Absolutely amazing perseverance, i don’t know how you guys do it! Stay safe!

Jessie

Mar 24, 2010

Wow – you two rock! Beautiful country but the terrain DOES look challenging….. keep it up. Sending you warm thoughts!

Brent

Mar 25, 2010

Thanks for the Birthday greeting good luck on the rest of your adventure!